Stormy Hearts
by Taka Momos
Summary: Shikamaru is tired. His mission as Temari's escort feels more like he's been assigned as her whipping boy. But when she calls him in the middle of the night because she's scared of a storm, he learns what she really means to him. Fluffy comfort, ShikaTema


**Author's Note:** Ok, so here's another ShikaTema I wrote, I hope you enjoy it. Reviews greatly appreciated. I really think I'm starting to get this whole story writing thing down. I'm getting used to writing short sentences instead of my normal essay-length ones. I still hate dialog though.

Anyways, enjoy.

* * *

3:30.

It was 3:30!

Who in their right mind called at 3:30!?

A half dressed Shikamaru continued mumbling and cursing as he made his way towards the ringing phone. He was tired. He was VERY tired.

Who wouldn't be? He had been assigned to escort... her. Temari, a woman who might as well have been his mother. She was evil enough.

When she wasn't whining, she was calling him lazy. If she wasn't doing that, then she was complaining about something else.

All she ever did was complain. She had to be the most high maintenance woman he'd ever met. She even topped INO!

He woke up early to satisfy her early bird ways. He went to bed late because she worked too much. He spent his afternoons following her while she ate on the go, and he spent the rest of the time solving all of her frivolous problems.

_Shikamaru, this is just ordinary tea. I ordered SWEET tea._

_Shikamaru, this sandwich is wrong. I ordered it without onions._

_Shikamaru, this pen is blue, I need a black one._

Shikamaru this, Shikamaru that, all she ever did was call his name to fix meaningless things.

Grabbing for the phone, he almost screamed into the receiver.

"What!?"

"Shikamaru-"

...

No.

No way.

He was just having a nightmare. It wasn't really-

"Shikamaru, I need you to come over to my hotel room, please. I have business that needs to be taken care of."

...

The idea of hanging up was quickly making its way through his mind.

"I understand that this must be an inconvenience for you, but quite frankly I don't care. I expect you-"

A loud rumble outside drowned out every noise in the room. Honestly, he hadn't even noticed it was storming. He probably wouldn't have if he had still been _asleep_ like the rest of the normal people.

"Expect me to what?"

He almost had to strain to hear her voice, now audibly shaken and barely above a whisper.

"Can you just come please?"

He smirked.

The big, bad witch was afraid of thunder.

He couldn't pass this up.

"Yeah, sure, fine. Whatever her highness wishes."

As he was taking the phone from his ear to hang up, he heard an even softer response.

"Thanks."

He froze, phone still in hand. She actually had _thanked _him.

After getting dressed, he made his way out into the stormy streets of Konoha, still slightly fazed by how a simple word was messing with his head.

When he arrived, he knocked on the door and was greeted by a puffy-eyed, messily dressed Temari.

"Umm... hi." He had hardly noticed the silence while he was looking her over.

"Oh, hey. So what needs to be done."

As she turned and he made his way into the room, he noticed that every light was turned on, as well as a muted TV displaying the local weather.

After another moment of silence, he finally decided to begin his revenge. He would torture her slowly and mercilessly.

"So, where's the work you needed help with?"

"Over on the table."

He looked over to a table with papers messily strewn about. After studying the papers for a minute, he actually smiled as he asked his next question.

"Isn't this your work?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, isn't this work you're supposed to do? I don't understand why you need my help doing it. It seems like you're perfectly capable of-"

"I don't feel good, and while I could fight through whatever I'm catching to finish it, I don't consider it important enough to risk my health over."

"And you call _me_ lazy."

"Listen, don't you dare-"

As another crack of lightning ripped through the room, she screamed and jump backwards, slamming into the closed door.

He watched her as the lights flickered. He watched the way she shook, the way she was choking back sobs. It wasn't funny anymore.

"Temari, are you ok?"

Hesitating, she began to regain her posture. Just as she started to feign being fine, thunder pounded the room. This time, however, the lights did go out.

Without even thinking, Shikamaru made his way over the shaken woman. He took her by the shoulders and slowly guided her through the darkened room to the general direction of the couch.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you."

"Why?" Why? She was terrified. How could she ask such a question. He sat himself on the couch and pulled her down beside him.

"Because you're scared."

"I am not scared."

He couldn't believe the pride she could still have, especially when he was being _nice_ to her. She had even articulated the words.

As he was preparing to argue with her over the matter, a crack tore through the room, actually knocking the lights back on before the room once again was consumed with darkness. It was then that he realized she was clinging to him, her head buried in his chest. He could feel the sobs as her body began to relax.

Slowly, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, holding her gently while she calmed down. After a few minutes of waiting, the lights came back on. Once her sobs had quieted, he let go over her and stood.

Temari whined as he left her, missing his embrace. She watched in silence as he went around the room, turning off all the lights that had been her only comfort. She hated storms, but she hated storms **in the dark** even more.

"Shikamaru?"

Finally, after all of the lights had been turned off except the one on the table by the couch and the TV, he walked back over towards her. In one fluid motion, he sat down and brought her head to his chest, before he laid them both down. As he wound an arm her waist, her fast breaths seemed to falter. She had just brought her hands to his chest when another crack of lightning made her scream out once again, clenching his shirt in fear.

"Shhh, don't be scared. I'm here. Just relax, I won't let anything hurt you."

He rubbed the hand around her waist over her back, tracing up and down her spine. He held her tighter as she began to relax in his arms, fascinated by the way she was melting at his touch. He adjusted her head on his shoulder, bringing it closer to the spot where his neck and shoulder met.

Another rumble, this time further away, made her muscles tighten, but this time she remained silent. He continued whispering to her to calm down as the rumbling came from further and further away. When she seemed to be relaxed, he reached up and turned the light by the couch off, leaving only the glow of the TV to light the room.

She snuggled closer to him, holding him tighter. He planted small kisses on the side of her face as she nuzzled his neck with her head.

Shikamaru suddenly realized the emotions whirling around in his head. He loved the feeling of her head on his chest. He loved how her hair smelled. More than anything, he loved holding her. She looked up at him smiling, and he felt his heart melt as he lost himself in her eyes.

She placed her lips to his, and as she pulled back his hand brought her head back to his, their mouths meeting once more in a more passionate kiss. Shikamaru licked at her lip, and felt every nerve in his body explode as he dove into her mouth with his tongue. He explored every part of her mouth, both gripping each other as tight as they could. He made sure visit everywhere atleast twice, before finally they pulled away panting.

She placed her head on his chest again, listening to the way his heart pounded inside his chest. He smiled as he looked down at her.

"Shika... thanks."

His smile grew at the sound of the word. Her hand gently came to his chest and gripped his shirt as she let out a sigh. He could hardly think of anything to say, except for three words.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

They laid there as he watched her lay against him. Her breathing turned into small, quiet breaths as she fell asleep. He watched her sleep, smiling as he, too, fell asleep.

He now had everything he wanted at that exact moment.

Temari and sleep.

* * *

_ When the sun shines, we'll shine together  
Told you I'll be here forever_

I was listening to Umbrella by Punk Goes Crunk while I wrote this (not because it's about rain, my TRUE inspiration was the lightning storm outside), and this was the part that always seemed to clear up my writer's block whenever there was a spot that gave me trouble. So I thought it deserved mentioning.

Ok, so, what'd ya think? Did I do a bit better this time around?

Ok, so apparently Umbrella wasn't originally by Punk Goes Crunk, but the version I was listening to was a cover.

Kinda gotta credit the version I was listening to lol. Thanks for the heads up, though.


End file.
